$44 billion in Bitcoin that never existed just traded on a live exchange for 20 minutes and the entire market is drawing the wrong conclusion.
Friday, 7pm Seoul. Bithumb runs a promo where winners get 2,000 Korean won.
About $1.40. One employee types “BTC” instead of “KRW.” 695 users receive 2,000 Bitcoin each. 620,000 BTC conjured from a single input field with zero validation.
Nearly 3% of all Bitcoin that will ever exist. Credited from nothing.
Bithumb held 175 BTC on its own books. 42,619 for customers.
The system manufactured 14x more than the exchange possessed and the trading engine accepted every phantom coin as real.
Users saw billions on screen and sold. 1,786 BTC dumped into the order book.
Price cratered 17% to 81.1 million won while every other exchange traded normally. Detected in 20 minutes.
$44 billion in Bitcoin that never existed just traded on a live exchange for 20 minutes and the entire market is drawing the wrong conclusion.
Friday, 7pm Seoul. Bithumb runs a promo where winners get 2,000 Korean won.
About $1.40. One employee types “BTC” instead of “KRW.”… https://t.co/46fqVcOMgi pic.twitter.com/loS0e3JhOZ
— Shanaka Anslem Perera ⚡ (@shanaka86) February 8, 2026
🚨BITHUMB MADE 620,000 FAKE BITCOIN?!
On Friday, a system glitch let Bithumb distribute 620,000 $BTC that never existed on the blockchain.
The exchange only had 175 $BTC on its own books and 42,619 BTC for customers, yet its ledger treated fake coins as real.
South Korean… pic.twitter.com/ZXznWSHEdH
— Coin Bureau (@coinbureau) February 8, 2026
by the looks of the chart, most people were able to sell and dumped it pic.twitter.com/IIXZsMt6BP
— Jay (@MrJay08) February 8, 2026